Full Length Research Paper

5S activities and its application at a sample company

Derya Sevim Korkut¹*, Nevzat Cakıcıer¹, E.Seda Erdinler², Göksel Ulay³ and Ahmet Muhlis Doğan⁴

¹Duzce University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Industrial Engineering, Duzce, 81620, Turkey.

²Istanbul University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Industrial Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey.

³ CAD Engineer, Numarine Yacht Company, Istanbul, Turkey.

⁴Forest Industry Engineer, Duzce, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: deryasevimkorkut@duzce.edu.tr. Tel.: +90 380 5421137. Fax: +90 380 5421136.

Accepted 27 February, 2009

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) targets enabling the machine operators to undertake the maintenance activities and therefore to increase the efficiency of the equipments. It struggles with six great losses decreasing the efficiency of the equipment. 5S, which is the pre-step of TPM, is a systematic approach providing the contribution of all personnel in the cleaning regime of the company. The clean and steady environment targeted by 5S has positive impacts on the work safety, quality, efficiency and morale. In this study, 5S system, used for ensuring order and discipline in the companies and ensuring the supervision of both simple and even the smallest details, has been reviewed in full details and they have been taken under the content of the research through selecting the assembly department as pilot department for 5S activities applied at a yacht manufacturing company. It has been targeted to set this as a guide for the directors of the company and the researches working in this field by assessing the results of this study.

Key words: 5S, TPM, activity, company.